Planted By God to Display His Glory -Isaiah 61:3

Archive for October, 2012

Much of my life over the last three years has been written in black ink…a dark script of pain, sorrow, loss and loneliness.

And yet, every day and every word of darkness God has edited, rewritten, crossed out, and written over in red ink.

Because…

Red-inked words of life rewritten over the black-inked script of our lives.

A truth so beautifully captured in a story my daughter wrote when she was just sixteen:

Checkers

Imagine an intense checkers game.

You’re the red pieces…and your opponent smiles menacingly as he sets up his black pieces. You start out feeling very confident, thinking that this game will be a breeze. But as the game goes on, red pieces start disappearing and black kings seem to be everywhere you try to go. Eventually the board is totally void of red pieces…except for one.

One tiny, pathetic little piece is cornered by all the black kings. Sweat pours down your face and you think that there is no way you could ever beat your opponent. On the other hand, he’s sitting across from you with glinting eyes and a devilish smile, showing confidence that makes you feel like he could jump up and smash you into the ground.

But then a shadow falls across the board. You both look up, and see a man standing there with a smile on his face. A patch on his shirt says “All-Time Checkers Champion, 33AD.” You look over at your opponent, only to see that his face has gone white. The man gently places his hand on your shoulder and says, “Well, how’s the game going?”

“Not so well…” You reply. “I’m going to lose.”

The man quickly scans over the board and then looks back at you.“Doesn’t look too bad to me. Anyway, this isn’t your game…”

Like this:

I’m heading out on a new writing adventure. I want to try to take a picture in words…and capture a fleeting memory, moment, or imagination…in 300 words or less.

<click> here’s my first pic:

The acrid smoke burns my nostrils.

I sniff in again. The prickly sensation travels down the back of my throat, and I am satisfied.

I have smelled Fall.

Our rakes lay abandoned in a haphazard array in the bare grass as we gather around the piles of growing flame. Horse chestnuts, shed with the crisp browned leaves, explode from their hidden shells inside the fire…and we cheer.

The joy tingles us to our toes and we forget our aching shoulders. The chorus of mournful tunes that echoed in the cool clear air just moments before have fallen like the leaves, and now fertilize the flames and the fun.

This burning ritual has no gender bias—I am an equal here with my brothers, covered in crumbled leaf dust, infiltrated with smoke, as we tend the fires with imagined military precision.

We don’t know the smoke is making our eyes sting and our lungs choke until there are only ashes of leaves left.

The rakes are forgotten for the leaves of tomorrow to fall upon them. The boys tease each other and run away down the lane.

After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 MSG